A few years ago I got bored one evening and coded a Twitter bot that generates New Scientist-headlines, as seen on Buzzfeed. I like NS but I was basically just taking the piss out of the more sensationalist headlines. I realised that the funniest tweets were the surreal ones so I gave it permission to experiment a bit more with bizarre headlines and made it learn what people liked based on retweets and favourites. After 1000 tweets and 800+ followers I chose to retire it. But now it’s back!

BREAKING: An unusual radio wave from a nearby galaxy suggests that Hillary Clinton's eyebrows are on point

— Not New Scientist (@NS_headlines) May 20, 2016

Feel free to follow @NS_headlines! Sometimes the headlines are nuts but occasionally it’s hard to tell the difference between my bot and the real thing:

@newscientist Are you sure that "Flying 3D printer" tweet wasn't really one of the NotNewScientist @NS_headlines that crept in by mistake?

— Clare Wilson (@ClareWilsonMed) May 7, 2014

ha! worthy of @NS_headlines RT @PaulMarks12: Submarines in space. Well, what else did you expect from @newscientist? http://t.co/ZqGdYk44Ql

— Jason Palmer (@djasonpalmer) June 9, 2014

Sometimes I really struggle to tell the difference between tweets from @newscientist and @NS_headlines

— Jessica Redacted (@JessicaRdctd) July 18, 2014

@edyong209 That really sounded like a @NS_headlines special. Sad news for the frogs though